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Many things can go wrong during the process of creating new products, services or business models. Let me give you ten examples from my own experience. You may recognize this as an array of all too familiar scenarios. If so, rest assured, you are not alone.

1. We´re not sure what we want.

Ideation of new products and services happens ad hoc, usually at a time when a problem arises or the turnover decreases suddenly or when a competitor enters the market unexpectedly. The first question is: “What now?” Then the creed becomes: “We’ll get Smith to create a list.” From this moment it becomes clear that any current strategic business plans no longer provide much direction for innovation. Ultimately, the lack of clear directives leads to random thought processes and frustration. Frustration because the management, further down in the innovation process, decided to concentrate on something else than what you were focusing on before.

Andrew Grill talks about why you need a Social Business Strategy.

So impressed was I with a recent report from Altimeter group on Social Business titled “The evolution of social business – six stages of social business transformation”, that I decided to do a multi-part blog post. The first post can be viewed at lc.tl/asb1. In this second post, I am looking at the section of the report that looks at defining a social business strategy. The Altimeter report looked at 698 companies in medium-large sized companies, as well as deeper interviews with 26 executives and social strategists at 15 companies. The Altimeter definition of a social business strategy is the following: the set of visions, goals, plans, and resources that align social media initiatives with business objectives.

Social Media doesn't work for the vast majority of small businesses.

That was the main message in the USA Today article titled, Study: Social media a bust for small businesses, published on April 17th, 2013. From the news item:"About 61% of small businesses don't see any return on investment on their social-media activities, according to a survey released Tuesday from Manta, a social network for small businesses. Yet, almost 50% say they've increased their time spent on social media, and only 7% have decreased their time. What businesses are trying to get out of social media: 36% said their goal was to acquire and engage new customers, 19% said to gain leads and referrals, and 17% said to boost awareness. Facebook was most cited as the hardest to maintain social-media platform, according to the survey." There is a big lesson in this data...

What you want from social media may be very different from what it is.

Creating online courses is fun! What happens though, when you are in the promotion phase? Find 8 great ways to promote your online courses in this mini tutorial.

Apart from using compelling content, you can support your eLearning activity with a series of other actions.

When looking at Best Practices by our customers (both from eFront and TalentLMS) we notice thatmost educators invest in specific things.

In my last four posts I’ve shared some of the lessons that I’ve learned from helping set up lullubee.com, a new business that makes and markets kits for making crafts. After we launched the site and figured out how to take ordersand ship products, the next task we faced was to get more visitors to the site, and ultimately more sales. In the next few posts I’ll cover several of the techniques we implemented, but in this post I’ll focus on Facebookmarketing.

The first thing we did was to set up our Facebook Page, as recommended in Facebooks “Four Steps to Business success on Facebook“.

Once you set up your page, you need to get users to visit it and, hopefully, to “like” it. The reason you want people to like your page is that your posts will then appear on that users news feed. Over time this will allow you, according to Facebook, to start “building loyalty and creating opportunities to generate sales.” The first method to get likes is to promote it on your own website using Facebook social plugins. As this costs nothing, you may as well do it, but the percentage of visitors that click on these is typically very small. The second is to purchase Facebook Ads that persuade people to visit your page and to like it. The irony of spending money to promote our Facebook page instead of our site was not lost on us.

A quick presentation about Business Model You, the book where you learn how to ask the right questions to find the perfect job

Why is Twitter key to your success?With more than 140 million active users (over 60% of whom are mobile users), 400 million Tweets sent per day, and over 400 million monthly unique visitors to

There's a serous disconnect between companies and potential employees in the United States—one that may be holding our entire economy back. And, contrary to the conventional wisdom, it's a problem that has been caused—and can only be cured by—companies. So says Peter Cappelli in his 2012 book Why Good People Can't Get Jobs. 

In Cappelli's view of the state of the modern employment landscape, there are several issues preventing companies from finding the talent they need—and none of them are related to the conventional cries from businesses and the media about a lack of talent in the pool, or the failure of the American education system to turn out people with appropriate skills. 

Bring people whom you have interacted with into the conversation by using a simple “+Amanda Blain have you tried this wine?” Also remember to +1 people who comment on your posts, as a ‘thank you’.

The owner of one of my favourite cafes recently started using Twitter and Facebook. However, when you interact with her business online, you get very little sense of the woman behind it. Her online footprint is polite but, frankly, it lacks personality. In reality, she is a larger than life character who epitomises her brand. She lives and breathes her cafe — and is well known (in real life) for her food, unique decor and events.

She told me: "I just don't want to be in the spotlight. I want people to interact with my business, not with me. I don't want to be the centre of attention."

Fair enough. However, in a world where consumers are bombarded with marketing and advertising messages, some experts believe we are living in an age where personal branding is vital for success. And that means NOT shying away from the spotlight.

Though some forward-thinking businesses are already using Instagram, chances are you aren't yet, and neither are your competitors. With its universal appeal, however, Instagram is not a medium marketers should ignore. And you'd better move quickly if you want to make an impact.

Financial KPIs and metrics are the ultimate measure of your organization's performance, whether your business is small or large. These are the measurements your stockholders, potential investors, and customers will use when assessing the performance of your business. That's why these financial metrics are an integral part of any executive or enterprise dashboard. By providing decision-makers with the right data, they can direct business initiatives more confidently to improve the performance and profitability of the entire organization.

To help get you started on your executive dashboard, we've put together a list of the top 10 financial ratios and metrics your business should monitor.

Do you want to be a more successful blogger?

Are you keeping up with the newest developments in blogging?

Whether you are new to blogging or you have been blogging for years, you will find insight in this article.

It covers 26 blogging essentials, in an A–Z tour of the blogosphere.

Each one has a full explanation, along with a link to further reading in case you want to know more.

Note: For simplicity’s sake, I assume you’re using WordPress as your blogging platform. Many of these essentials, though, apply to other blogging platforms as well.

Starbucks and Blackberry, for example, has understands that country pages that featured localized content in addition to the global initiatives fostered interaction as much as 10 – 15x than those which featured English-only content. Maybe it's time for everyone to do something on this way. I see the difference, since I publish in several language on my Facebook, fan page, and you? OK, this is not an issue for people who speak only one language in their country or who are not active internationally. [note Martin Gysler]

The world is becoming a much smaller place. But even with social media contributing to a globally connected society, businesses that continue to take a global approach to social content and engagement may be missing opportunities for greater resonance and relevance. While a global presence is necessary for any organization hoping to connect with customers around the world, placing reliance on one prevailing strategy is just the beginning. In any web strategy, including social and also mobile media, localization is king.

Read more: http://www.briansolis.com/2012/01/digital-localization-optimizes-global-strategies-to-improve-experiences-and-results/